It is desirable that a container be capable of even when an amount of a content thereof is reduced by using or consuming a part of the content, keeping the remaining content from contacting with external air and thereby preventing oxidation of the remaining content.
Specifically, in a commonly-used liquid container, it is easy to prevent oxidation of a content thereof during a period after hermetically closing the container through until the container is opened. For example, it can be achieved by, after filling the container with the content and before hermetically closing the container, vacuumizing an internal space of the container, or filling the internal space with inert gas such as nitrogen gas. However, as for a conventional rigid container, in a situation where the container is opened to consume a part of the content, so that an unused part of the content remains in the container, external air enters the container in a volume corresponding to an amount of consumption of the content, causing oxidation of the remaining content. In order to prevent such oxidation, an antioxidant is contained in the content, in some cases.
With a view to preventing oxidation of such a remaining content, there has been proposed a container comprising a rigid outer container (rigid outer container layer) and a flexible inner container (flexible inner container layer), wherein the container is configured to, when a content of the container is consumed, reduce a capacity (volume) of the flexible inner container by an amount corresponding to an amount of consumption of the content to thereby prevent external air from entering the flexible inner container, without causing deformation of the rigid outer container, i.e., while maintaining independence of the rigid outer container. This type of container has been commercialized as a seasoning container or the like.
A problem to be solved in the above conventional double container configured to reduce the capacity of the flexible inner container by an amount corresponding to an amount of consumption of a content thereof to thereby prevent external air from entering the flexible inner container, without causing deformation of the outer container is that the flexible inner container needs to be in contact with an inner surface of the outer container during manufacturing, and then to be separated from the inner surface of the outer container in response to consumption of the content to thereby allow external air to be introduced into a space between the flexible inner container and the outer container. If an opening for introducing external air into the above space can be reliably formed using a simple apparatus or without using any apparatus, and with a simplified work, the above container would become significantly useful.
As a conventional technique relating to formation of the opening for introducing external air into the space between the rigid outer container and the flexible inner container, there has been proposed a hollow, inner layer-separable laminate container formed in an at least two-layer structure comprising an outer layer and an inner layer each made of a thermoplastic resin, wherein the laminate container has: a body portion whose wall is formed as easily-separable laminated walls by a portion of the outer layer and a portion of the inner layer in contact with the portion of the outer layer; and a mouth-neck portion provided with an atmospheric air introduction hole for enabling atmospheric air to be introduced between the laminated walls therethrough, at a position below a threaded section formed on an outer peripheral surface of the mouth-neck portion so as to enable a cap member or the like to be threadingly engaged therewith, and wherein portions of the outer and inner layers defining the atmospheric air introduction hole are formed to protrude outwardly so as to enable a distal end of the atmospheric air introduction hole-defining portion of only the outer layer to be cut off in a simplified manner to thereby easily open the atmospheric air introduction hole without damaging the atmospheric air introduction hole-defining portion of the inner layer (see, for example, the following Patent Document 1).
As another conventional technique relating to formation of the external air introducing opening, there has been proposed a bottle structure comprising an outer layer made of a synthetic resin and forming an outer shell with a given shape, an inner layer made of a flexible synthetic resin and separably laminated to the outer layer to form an inner pouch, each formed by blow-molding, wherein an exposed portion of the inner layer is formed such that it is located at a top of a protruding piece protrudingly provided on a lower end of a cylindrical mouth portion provided to extend continuously and upwardly from an upper end of a body portion of the bottle structure (see, for example, the following Patent Document 2).
As yet another conventional technique relating to formation of the external air introducing opening, there has been proposed a double container having a body portion and a mouth-neck portion formed to extend upwardly from the body portion, wherein the double container is prepared by separably laminating an inner layer made of a synthetic resin and deflatable along with ejection of a liquid content, to an inner surface of an outer layer made of a synthetic resin and having a shape retaining property and wherein, in a part of a corner region where an upper edge of a peripheral wall of the body portion and an outer peripheral edge of a top wall of the body portion intersect with each other, a portion of the outer layer defining an outer surface of the part of the corner region is cut off and removed along a direction orthogonal to a protruding direction of the corner region to thereby make an air inlet hole for introducing external air into a space between the outer layer and the inner layer (see, for example, the following Patent Document 3).
As still another conventional technique relating to formation of the external air introducing opening, there has been proposed a synthetic resin blow-molded container comprising: an outer layer forming an outer shell; and an inner layer forming an inner pouch and separably laminated to the outer layer, wherein: the inner layer has a bulging portion formed in a peripheral wall of a cylindrical mouth portion of the container, and a portion of the outer layer laminated to a vicinity of a tip of the bulging portion is standingly formed as a flat tab piece having a circumferential edge around the tip to serve as a tearable base end, wherein the base end is formed in a notch-like shape; the bulging portion of the inner layer being formed by subjecting a portion of the peripheral wall of the cylindrical mouth portion to bulge forming together with the outer layer, during blow molding of the container, the tab piece being formed by subjecting the portion of the outer layer laminated to the vicinity of the tip of the bulging portion of the inner layer to pressing using mating surfaces of a split mold used in the blow molding, and the notch-like shape of the base end being formed along a shape of a mold cavity during formation of the bulging portion; whereby a portion of the outer layer can be peelingly removed from the vicinity of the tip of the bulging portion of the inner layer to provide an air inlet hole for introducing external air between the outer layer and the inner layer (see, for example, the following Patent Document 4).